Famous Brits

The beginning of today was rather uneventful. Stefanie jogged down to the train station to buy our train tickets to Wimbledon for tomorrow morning (6:01 train ew!). Nicole worked on essay research all morning, before going to class and running errands. Then it was back to essay work for Nicole while Stefanie watched the US World Cup at the pub.

Then, we got all dressed up to go to the Famous Brits themed party that the university held for us at the school bar.

Audrey Hepburn and Helena Bonham Carter

Found: One Attractive British Man
 (too bad he was just cardboard....I'll take what I can get.) 

They were handing out masks of the Royal Family at the party. (Nicole was kind of sad they didn't have baby George masks.) Stefanie wants to point out that Nicole still freaked out about the Prince Harry masks. (Nicole wants to point out that she decided she was going to marry Prince Harry when she was seven years old. The little girl in me was screaming.) 

be afraid

Get excited because tomorrow night we'll be letting you know about our adventures at Wimbledon. Cheers!

Nicole's Happy Place

If you follow Nicole on Twitter, then you probably already know how much she loves Brighton as she was ranting about it just this morning. We both love the city and it's definitely much more exciting than campus (for one thing, there are actual British people in the city...).

Stefanie spent the morning in class, while Nicole worked on reading and research for her paper. Then, we decided to try out taking the bus into town (it's a lot simpler than it seems based on the fact that we can't seem to get any information on it). It took about a half an hour to get from campus to downtown Brighton (versus 10 minutes on the train, plus the walk to the station and the walk into town). 

We started off with lunch at EAT because we had heard it was yummy. Well, everyone who said that was definitely right! 

Stefanie's "Rainbow Salad" and hummos & falafel wrap

Nicole's tomato-brie-basil baguette, crisps, and Pink Lemonade
(which was kind of life-changing)

There was an adorable market out in the square with lots of fresh food, including sushi and food imported from Spain.

After finishing lunch, we decided to explore the mall in Churchill Square. We went in about a dozen stores and Stef bought some adorable clothes at H&M. Nicole was beyond thrilled to find Ed Sheeran's new CD in a DVD & CD store, which was one of the things we had set out to find today. 

We found this Ed Sheeran poster outside the store!

I'm addicted to trying on these hats.
They make me feel like Taylor Swift!

Then we went into Topshop (where neither of us found anything) and Primark where Nicole went a little crazy. We've both watched some of the vlogger Zoella's youtube videos, because Nicole is obsessed with them, and she frequently shops at Primark...in fact, she shops at the same Primark we went to because she lives in Brighton! We found fun things galore, including British flag beach towels!

Nicole strongly identified with this shirt;
Stefanie was not amused. 

Following this, we bought some more practical items like hand soap (which we FINALLY found; we were beginning to think it didn't exist in this country), an adaptor for Stef, groceries, and books for Nicole's class. 

We decided to take a stroll and ended up down at the beach. We frolicked over the rocky beach before sprawling out for a little while. Then we decided to eat at one of the restaurants down on the beach, where we had disappointing veggie burgers (the view was great though!). 

We could see the Grand Hotel, a Victorian hotel built in 1864

We could also see West Pier, which was built in 1866,
but burnt down in 2003 

Our view from the restaurant

Then, we caught the bus home (we caught one just as it pulled up which was a nice surprise!). We're hoping to have a low-key (and hopefully less expensive!) day tomorrow as we rest up to head to Wimbledon on Friday. 

Let the Classes Begin

Hi friends, just Stefanie here. Today was the opposite of yesterday as I had class and Nicole did not. Unfortunately, most days are like this: one of us is free all day while the other has class.

Nicole and I just returned to our rooms after a surprisingly yummy dinner at the pub. We discovered their menu last night and I was so excited to find it loaded with vegetarian options!
The dining has been relatively good here. As a vegetarian, I am always concerned about food choices when traveling (I prefer not to just eat pasta and bread for every meal) but I have found that there is usually something for me to eat! Shockingly, the best vegetarian meals on campus are available at the pub. It's perfect for me. I get to not only eat veggie burgers (without a bun!) piled with guacamole and jalapenos, but also watch the World Cup (which I have now dragged Nicole to watch two nights in a row... woops). Tonight was cool because it was England playing (although they had already been eliminated).

Nicole's Chicken Tikka Masala!

Stefanie's veggie burger covered with guac, jalapenos, etc!

While it may seem we have just been doing a lot of eating (due to the ridiculous number of foodies we have already taken), I did have my first class today. I am taking Introductory Biology here at Sussex which will give me credit for the Intro Biology class back at Elon! I was surprised by the tiny class size: only eight people! My class will probably not be as exciting to share about as Nicole's as we literally started at the beginning today with the chapter on Cells and What is Life. Anyways, class went well! The professor was nice and it should be a good couple of weeks!

Nicole spent some of the morning at the library getting books she needs for her class and her essay which she seems super excited about. After my class, I went to the library as well to check out a couple biology textbooks and a random book I found on Medical and Biological Research in Israel.

We then headed to lunch but the main eatery was bursting with high school students dressed in business attire (apparently for some program but we have yet to find out the details). We decided to just buy food at the market and try and "cook" something. I just had falafel and hummus over salad (the staples of my diet) while Nicole made some pizza. This was our first attempt to make food and we had some adventures with the oven. We struggled to figure out how exactly to turn it on and at one point I practically pulled the thing out of the wall. Anyways, pizza was eventually served.

The weather has been so nice here so far and even a bit on the hot side! I was expecting to freeze but everyone keeps telling me this is not going to last. Apparently the rain is due to arrive any day now...

Pretty view from my kitchen!

Sky last night!

I have class again tomorrow morning and then Nicole and I will head to Brighton in the afternoon to do some more exploring (and possibly shopping!).

P.S. After writing this blog post I decided to go for a sunset jog around campus and it was lovely. I can't stand running but when it's this nice out and I have a campus to explore it is almost enjoyable.

History Extravaganza

Hi everyone! It's just Nicole writing today as I had a Big Day, while Stefanie had a lot more free time. This morning started off with orientation (unfortunately, mine was at 9 am and Stef's was at 11 am). On my way back, I stopped in one of the campus cafes to buy a scone and a hot tea (for just under 2 pounds!) to enjoy back at my room.

I love this country so much.

I worked on decorating my room, went through paperwork, and figured out how to use the ethernet cable while watching an episode of The Tudors (I discovered that British Netflix doesn't have The Borgias, which made me quite sad). I met Stef for lunch at Dhaba Cafe, the vegetarian restaurant on campus, which was interesting but yummy.

Stefanie's Vegetarian Street Food Masterpiece

Then, it was time for my first class! Our schedules had the class as 2-5 pm, but apparently it was marked as 1-4 pm on my professor's schedule. I showed up around 1:15, intending to find the classroom and then sit and read in the hallway. However, I ran into my teacher so we ended up chatting for about 45 minutes until everyone else showed up.

My professor, Robert Hutchinson, is absolutely incredible. Three of our books for class were written by him and he's worked on several documentaries, in addition to starting out his career in the newspaper field before moving into history writing. We crammed the entire reign of Henry VII into a few hours (from the Battle of Bosworth to his death of TB) and discussed our upcoming field trips. I'm so thrilled for this class and have already picked out my essay topic (we have a choice of three) for our paper that's due next week. Also, I have to mention that my professor told us that he lives in a thatched roof house that was built in the 1500's and there's a little castle at the end of his street. It sounds so cliche, I couldn't make it up if I tried.  

There's an adorable drink machine in my class building

You can even put milk and sugar in your tea or coffee!

Stef and I met up for dinner at Eat Central (for the third night in a row!) before I went to the lecture the school offered on Brighton & Hove History. I learned a lot of great stuff, but the lecturer also showed us a bunch of pictures of Brighton and recommended places to go. He was born in Brighton and lived here for most of his life, so it was really nice to get an insider's look and see how proud he was of the city.

Now, I'm off to the school pub for the first time to watch some World Cup with Stefanie (also a first for me). Wish me luck surviving amidst the sports fans...I don't even know what countries are playing! Oops!

Becoming Train Experts (or the Trainsformation)

The first thing we did this morning was take an unnecessarily long and confusing walk to the train station on the other end of campus (but, hey, we got there). We took the train into the center of Brighton (a quick and cheap trip!) and went off to find what we needed.

The view from the foot bridge at the Falmer station

After some confusion, we ended up going to Argos to buy an alarm clock for Nicole, hangers, pillows, and towels (since the towels provided by the school shedded blue fuzz all over our bodies and we don't particularly like being covered in navy blue fuzz). The store has multiple stations with catalogues where you find the products that you want, write down their numbers, and go pay for them. Then, the workers bring your products up for you from a magical secret place. You can buy everything from nail polish to washers and dryers.

See for yourself!

With huge bags now in tow, we found a Pret A Manger for lunch! (Needless to say, Nicole freaked out.) The restaurant was so adorable and surprisingly large. We wanted to take a picture, but we thought it might be awkward...we'll definitely be going back, so maybe we'll snag a picture when it's less crowded.

We shared a delicious panini! 

Stefanie was happy to find a smoothie!

Then, we headed off to Tesco to try and find the Saigon Export beer. Miss Saigon was doing a promo where they would send you a poster if you tweeted them a selfie with the beer. However, we couldn't find it.

We tweeted this instead

We caught the train back to campus and walked around to find buildings before grabbing a quick dinner. Our evening activity was a walking tour of Brighton sponsored by the university. So, we headed BACK to the train station to get the train into Brighton. We saw a lot of cute stores, the Royal Pavilion, and the Pier. Our guide left us to explore a little more on our own, so after searching for a restaurant that was open for a while and finding nothing (apparently everything closes early on Sunday evenings, and we really do mean everything) we headed back to the train station.

#royalpavilionselfie  

The Royal Pavilion

The beach is pebbly instead of sandy

The Brighton Wheel

The pier is full of yummy and tempting food!

"What does that even MEAN?"

Now, Stefanie's headed off to the pub to find a TV to watch the World Cup game while Nicole goes to bed because she has orientation early in the morning. Tomorrow we start doing real things at the university (like orientation and class for Nicole)!

Exhaustion

After writing our last blog post, we surprised Hannah by going to her book presentation. We headed straight from there to the airport. Other than a half hour delay due to apocalyptic thunderstorms, everything went smoothly. 

At Hannah's book presentation

Boarding was absolute chaos

#airplaneselfie

We soothed ourselves with sad musical theatre songs, especially "A Little Fall of Rain"

Stefanie's Super Healthy Vegetarian Meal
(her name is apparently Godbole Sange according to the sticker on her meal)

Nicole's....also vegetarian meal (one of the options was cheese lasagna)  

Stefanie's salad dressing was fancy....Nicole's was not. 

Our breakfast trays were so cute! 

Nicole freaked out a little when she saw London from the airplane
(if you look closely, you can see the Eye in this photo)

After a night of no sleep on the plane, we were happy to see the London skyline. Nicole went a little crazy pointing out Tower Bridge, the Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Kensington Palace. We both were pretty shocked (in all our sleep deprived glory) when an instrumental version of "Let It Go" blasted out of the plane's speakers while we were waiting to get off. Customs went surprisingly well, despite the scary lady who even wanted to know what classes we were taking, and we were all set to catch our bus. While our bus got to us on time, it got into Brighton an hour late somehow. Then, after over three hours on a bus, we had to wait an hour for the bus to the University of Sussex. (By the way, Brighton was hot and sunny today).

Brighton is such a cute town!

Nicole gave up and sat on the curb.

After the never-ending wait, we were thrilled to get to the University of Sussex but surprised to see how big the campus is. Our dorm is on the farthest side of campus from anything that resembles humanity. (Nicole did see a fox today that was a little too friendly.)

Luckily, our dorms are right next to each other and surprisingly nice (colors schemes aside). Hopefully, we'll have a dorm tour video up within the next few days (after we find hangers for our wardrobes tomorrow...)

Checking in, scanning our passports, unpacking, going to the IT guys to get wifi, and shopping at the university grocery store for tomorrow's breakfast kind of wore us out. We soldiered on to dinner, which was a lovely (and free!) welcome party for all the students. Now we're ready to collapse (it's a true show of love that we wrote this blog post for you all before crawling into bed) before heading out tomorrow morning to get some essentials from stores in Brighton and explore the area, not to mention the train station.

Overall, the delays weren't the worst part of today. The knowledge that West End Live (including Les Miserables, Wicked and Miss Saigon) was going on in London while we were SO CLOSE, waiting for buses, definitely was.